XMLforMedia seeks to create a unified set of communication protocols to
be used by the advertising industry. There are several parts to this
project including a collection of XML schemas that provide a context
for all facets of the media life cycle, from avail to invoice. Another
part is an industry Registry for all trading partners to list their
communication capabilities. The AAAA has created a committee with
representatives from each media group to help shape the direction and
composition of these documents.

In 2003 Vexcom completed
development on the current working version of the Ad-ID system
(advertising digital identification) for the AAAA and the ANA. The top
four U.S. broadcast networks, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, have signed on to
comply with the new 12-character Ad-ID code for tracking all
advertising. This system is heralded by the two advertising trade
groups behind the system as a new standard for monitoring the $263
billion U.S. ad industry.

"We are very excited to be working
with the AAAA and the ANA on these projects. Ad-Id and XMLforMedia have
presented some unique challenges; connecting so many different systems
is not an easy task. Thankfully, we have had the help of many industry
leaders from all major media to assist in making the project
successful," states Wesley E. Warren, CEO of Vexcom.

Entities
wishing to participate in eBusiness transactions with trading partners
must have a way to communicate with each other. For this reason, we
have created the XMLforMedia UDDI Registry. The Registry will allow
trading partners to locate other compatible trading partners, such as
an advertising agency and a television station, and then use the
information in the registry to initiate pure machine-to-machine
communication via XML web services.

These components will
allow advertising industry transactions to take place seamlessly and
instantly. Instead of faxing in an avail request, receiving an email
back a day or so later and then placing the order over the phone, all
transactions will be fully automated through a common network of
communication protocols.

The XMLforMedia is currently in beta testing, and is set to be fully released later this year.

Web
services allow you to expose selected business system processes via a
platform independent API web interface using XML and/or SOAP to accept
data, process it, then return a response. The response may be a simple
success/failure or it may be a complex data object. Web services are
the future of systems integration. You can allow your clients,
partners, vendors, distributor, etc., to exchange information and
process data directly from one system to another without any human
interface required.

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration) is basically a search engine for web services and is
itself a web service. Web services are access points on the internet
that systems can communicate with. A web service resides at a specific
URL and in most cases accepts a data packet in the form of XML,
processes the request inside the XML and then returns a result. This
allows multiple systems from multiple entities to communicate and do
business on a purely electronic level. Web services replace email,
faxes, mail-in forms, etc., and act as a public access point into a
business system.

The XMLforMedia system is loosely based on
the UDDI 2.0 Specification. Many of the UDDI functions are supported,
and many additional functions specific to the needs of the system have
been added.